Champions League: Ranking the 5 best goal-scoring streaks in the tournament's history
The Champions League has always provided top-quality entertainment for the fans. More than the goals, it is about the top European sides going head-to-head that excites the viewers more.
The competition has seen some world-class goal-scorers produce fascinating performances time and again. That being said, being a regular scorer in this prestigious tournament is not at all an easy task.
Champions League and world's best footballers
The competition has witnessed many performances that have become part of the folklore due to their unique brilliance. One of these types of performances involves a footballer scoring in a number of consecutive matches of the tournament.
In the history of the Champions League, there have been few players who have managed to score on a regular basis and continuously help their respective teams. Here, we take a look at the footballers who have had the 5 best streaks of goal-scoring in matches of the competition.
#5 Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid: 2013-14)
The 2013-14 season was a very memorable one for Cristiano Ronaldo given that he won his first-ever Champions League title with Real Madrid. Under the management of Carlo Ancelotti, Los Blancos secured La Decima in that very campaign.
Major credit goes to Ronaldo for that achievement given his stellar performances in front of goal. Out of the six group stage matches, the Portuguese played in five of them, scoring nine goals.
On this day in 2014 📅
Real Madrid won their 10th European title, aka 'La Decima’ 🏆
And Cristiano Ronaldo became the first player to score in the final for two different European Cup winning teams 🙌
https://t.co/oVYwj7lwXl
This included wins against Galatasaray once, FC Copenhagen twice, and Juventus once. In the knockout stages, Ronaldo was impressive in the round of 16 as he scored four goals against Schalke in two legs.
In the following round, he scored once against Borussia Dortmund in the first leg and was on the bench for the second leg. He failed to score against Bayern Munich in the first leg, which ended his spree of scoring in eight consecutive matches.
Cristiano Ronaldo went on to score 17 goals in the competition that season, failing to score in only one single match.
#4 Ruud van Nistelrooy (Manchester United: 2002-03)
Ruud van Nistelrooy was a wonderful striker for Manchester United. Using his amazing positioning and clinical finishing, the Dutchman was a lethal threat in front of goal.
In the 2002-03 Champions League, van Nistelrooy had a run to remember. The Dutch striker went on to score in all nine matches that he played in that season of the tournament. Back then, the competition involved two group stages but it didn't really matter to the right-footed goal-scoring machine.
@RvN1776 scored in a record 9 consecutive #UCL games in 2002/03. 
🎁 9⃣ 🎁
ℹ️ @RvN1776 scored in a record 9 consecutive #UCL games in 2002/03.
#UCLadvent 🎄 https://t.co/lx0X9dAIKz
The Man U striker scored goals against Maccabi Haifa, Bayer Leverkusen, and Olympiacos in the first group stage, followed by goals against Deportivo La Coruna, Juventus, and Real Madrid.
Despite being knocked out by Real Madrid in the quarter-finals, Ruud van Nistelrooy ended up as the highest goal-scorer in the Champions League with nine goals.